FRIESEN: Not enough minutes to go around for talented Jets

“This is not recreational hockey,” the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets said. “You don’t pay your $85 and get equal ice time here, man.”

I brought up the topic with Maurice after having interesting conversations with Mathieu Perreault and Jack Roslovic, members of the Jets fourth line, this week.

The chat with Perreault came the day after Tuesday’s overtime loss to Edmonton, in which he played 8:51, his fourth straight game at less than 10 minutes.

“It’s tough when you don’t get out there much,” Perreault said. “The last few years for sure I’ve never experienced that. You get one shift in the third. One shift in the second. I looked back, I had a shift at the 12-minute mark of the second, and then the next shift was the 14-minute mark of the third. And that was it.”

As Perreault pointed out, this was new territory for the 10-year vet.

I assumed, out loud, he wasn’t going to talk to his head coach about it.

“Not yet,” he said. “It’s early in the season. I’m here to win hockey games so I’m never going to complain about myself. But when you lose a game like that it’s a lot tougher to sit there and watch it.”

It wasn’t easy for the 21-year-old Roslovic, either.

“You don’t go out there and try to work your ass off so you get less minutes,” Roslovic said. “We sat on the bench for, like, 45 minutes of time and 20 minutes of game time. It’s tough to stay warm, almost. It’s never fun when you have to sit like that. We were up 4-1, and you wonder.”

The Jets built their lead by late in the second period of that game.

Then came the third-period collapse.

“And you’re sitting there and you’re watching the team get scored on once, then twice, and then three,” Roslovic said. “And then you’re, like, ‘Holy god – now we’re definitely not going out.’ Because if we need a goal, Paul’s a big stats guy so he’s not going to be sending us out there. We probably have combined goals in three years that wouldn’t even match Scheif’s line.

“So I understand that part of it.”

The rest, he’ll just have to learn.

Two nights later, Roslovic, Perreault and the newest addition to that line, Brendan Lemieux, played well and hit double-digits in ice time in a 3-1 win over Vancouver. Maurice’s explanation on Friday was simple enough.

“How they’re playing,” he said. “And who’s coming off the bench next. Connor McDavid ran about 1:04 shifts coming into that game (Tuesday)… and I didn’t want them on the ice against him.”

Maurice says there’s a far greater variance in the game of young players: “They’ll go from flying one night to the next night they’re not moving.”

“I’ll make a read fairly early on them,” the coach added. “And if it’s not a favourable read, then I’m really careful. I’m going to get them back out there, but I’m not working too hard to do it.”

It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. Because players, especially young ones, need time on the ice to gain confidence.

“When we can get into double-digit numbers and we can get the lines rolling and our line can get confident, then we’re a really effective line,” Roslovic said. “And we can help the hockey team. We’re dangerous when all four lines are going. It happens often with our team. It’s fun to watch.”

Caught in the middle of this tug between youth and a cautious coach is Perreault, whose just-grin-and-bear-it approach is a good example to someone like Roslovic.

“We talk about it more than he might talk about it with you guys,” Roslovic said.

I asked Maurice if he has any concerns about Perreault’s willingness to accept fourth-line minutes, long-term.

“He’s back, net-front, on the other power-play unit, and he loves that hole, so he’s happy there,” the coach said. “What Frenchie wants to do is he wants to be part of something good. He wants to enjoy the game, and plays with that energy. (Thursday) night he enjoyed the game. They played at the right end of the rink. They had some chances down low. That’s fun for him.

“And again, we’re not staying healthy all year, so there’s going to be lots of minutes for him.”

When they’re healthy, though, it seems to me the Jets, with so many talented players who need a feel for the puck to be effective, could have a problem.

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